LUDHIANA, FEBRUARY 7:
On the second day of international conference on 'Preparing agriculture for climate change,' which is currently underway at PAU campus, the eminent scientists and climatologists from across the globe dwelt on mitigation strategies and interventions along with adaptation strategies involving genetic options/interventions.
The technical Session III on 'mitigation strategies-policy and management interventions,' was chaired by Dr. Daniel Hillel, Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, USA.
Dr William Dar and CCL Gowda from International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, deliberating on 'Reduced Productivity and Global Food Security,' said that climate change predictions point to a warmer world, with estimates of a temperature increase of 1.5 to 2.5˚C by 2050. With the world's population projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, it is imperative that the world's farmlands become the frontline for the battle to feed the present one billion hungry and the projected 9 billion. To achieve this, global agricultural production will need to grow by 70%, added Dr Dar.
He pointed out that climate change will also increase prices in 2050 by 90% for wheat, 12% for rice and 35% for maize, on top of already higher prices. Dr Dar suggested that the detrimental effects of climate change on food security can be counteracted by broad-based economic development, particularly improved agricultural productivity and healthy international trade in agricultural products. Investment in land, water and nutrient use are crucial, he emphasized. Improved crop, soil and water management practices and stress-tolerant varieties that will overcome the detrimental impacts of climate change will lead to improved food security, livelihoods and environmental security, said he. Dr CCL Gowda made the presentation on this topic. Better understanding of climate change impact on food production, forests and natural resources to target and prioritize both adaptation and mitigation measures were needed, said the expert while emphasizing on local level efforts tailored to local circumstances and eco-systems. He advocated sound scientific programmes built on current wealth of knowledge and new research directions to address the climate change issues.
The technical Session IV on 'adaptation strategies: genetic options,' was chaired by Deepak Pental, former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University.
Dr Sanjay Kumar, Biotechnology Division, Institute of Himalayan Bio-resources Technology, Palampur, delved on 'Understanding altered molecular dynamics in Himalayan ecosystem: implications for agricultural research under climate change scenario.' The reports of Intergovernmental Panel on climate change highlighted the gravity of consequences that the life on earth is to face in coming times, divulged Dr Kumar, adding that there is a consensus that climate change as a process has begun to shape up and might have far reaching implications on genetic drift, species biodiversity, agriculture, and eco-system health. The priority areas demanding immediate attention are mountainous regions where the species are at the fringe of their spatial distribution. In case of global warming, these species are likely to face extinction, unless their adaptive support system is able to withstand the tide of climate change. Understanding these responses would help adequately to develop suitable policy measures regarding their in situ and ex-situ conservation, said he. Dr Kumar also referred to another issue which is the dependence of plant life, particularly in dry Himalayan alpine ecosystem, on glaciers as the source of water.
Dr Manjit Singh Kang, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, throwing light on 'Genetic manipulation for crop adaptation,' said that most of the districts in Punjab have registered a linear increase in minimum summer temperatures and winter during the last four decades. Receding glaciers and water table pose a serious challenge to agriculture, added Dr Kang. The Indo-Gangetic plains are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change on crop productivity. Dr Kang elaborated that it is evident that in the absence of appropriate remedial measures, the greatest causalities of climate change will be food, water and livelihood security. While mitigation measures, such as reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, are important, genetic manipulation for crop adaptation has become a necessity, stressed Dr Kang. He also deliberated on reorientation of crop-breeding strategies with special reference to initiatives taken in wheat, rice, maize and brassica oilseeds programmes at PAU. Dr. N.S.Bains, highlighted that the old, tall and tolerant varieties of wheat such as C-306, C-591, etc. are being considered for desirable traits. He said that the wild progenitors of wheat such as Aegilops species are being considered for desirable characters adding that a gene bank has been established. Dr. Bains said that for rice water use efficiency characters are important while for wheat terminal heat tolerance is important. The pro-active, exploratory approach for these has been taken up for PAU wherein the physiological traits such as stay-green period, chlorophyll retention and tolerance to abiotic stresses are also of vital significance in our research programmes, said he.
Speaking on 'sustainable agricultural production in view of climate change: merging physiological and genetic approaches,' Dr Jiwan S.Palta, Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, said that two general approaches can be undertaken to develop strategies for sustainable production in a changing climate: 1) understand and exploit the genetic and physiological variations that exist in germplasm in relation to abiotic stresses i.e. mining the germplasm. 2) develop production practices for mitigating the impact of abiotic stresses. Specifically, information is needed on: a) mechanisms of injury and survival by abiotic stresses and b) mechanisms of acclimation to abiotic stresses, added Dr Palta.
The technical Session V was a Poster session which was coordinated by PAU scientists namely Dr SS Banga, Dr Kuldeep Singh, Dr NS Bains, Dr SK Sandhu and Dr D. Pathak. The session saw poster presentations by the theme assessors (delegates) on thematic areas such as 'natural resource base for agriculture,' 'germplasm assessment and enhancement,' 'insect pests, pathogens and weeds,' 'genes and genomics,' 'physiological and biochemical studies,' 'agronomic mitigations,' 'impact on agricultural production, 'policy interventions,' and 'hypothetical response to hypothetical situations: projections and simulations.'
A symposium lecture has been scheduled by Dr Ramesh Chand, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi, on ' Climate change: economic imperatives and policy options for meeting future food requirements.' Revealing the latest estimate released by Food and Agriculture organization of United Nations, it has been highlighted that the number of undernourished people has increased from 768 million during 1995-97 to 935 million during 2005-07. In case of India, more than one fifth of India's population was undernourished even in terms of basic requirement of dietary energy. To improve food and nutrition security, India needs to raise per capita consumption substantially besides meeting food requirement of a population that is rising by 1.4 percent each year. Rising income and dietary diversification are putting different types of pressure on demand for food. It is estimated that food production in India must increase at least by around 2.5 percent to keep pace with growth in demand. Factors related to climate change are expected to adversely affect prospects of raising food production in countries like India. The country has to prepare an ambitious plan, at least in terms of financial investments, to tame adverse of the climate change on growth of food production and for sustainable agriculture, said he.
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